Sub 40 minute training 10k

Today, I hit a personal milestone that I am pretty proud of so I thought I would share. I have taken my running to MY next level over the past few months and the improved focus in training is really showing these days. Times, I once thought beyond my talents, are getting closer and closer to being realized.

Even on a day when I was going to go a little easier than recent runs, due to the development of a mild cold, I seemed to be going much faster than usual for the same effort.

I knew I had the wind to my back for the first 4km so I thought I would just go with flow and enjoy the help. It was fun to crack off some decent splits so early in the run. I then decided to wait until the 3k mark and throw in one race pace km for fun. It was tiring but I just wanted to see what I had on this day.

Knowing that I would be heading back into the wind soon, I started to back off at 4k. Somehow, the next split came up under 4:00 but I was hanging on to a pretty comfortable speed. The next two kilometres were dead into the wind where I assumed I would fall back to my recent 10k training paces. After those splits came up, I was in a much better position than expected.

The final 3k ended up being a lot faster than the norm. I was not pushing too hard and my breathing was controlled. I was amazed at the splits that were coming up on the Garmin since I was still driving into the wind.

After seeing the 9k split, I knew I had a chance to break 40 minutes so my final kilometre did have some extra bounce to it but I was not exhausted at completion and could easily have busted off 5 or 8 more km's, I think.

10k = 39:43


4:06/4:07/4:02/3:38/3:59/4:07/4:06/3:56/3:53/3:49

Now for my first coached swim practice tonight. I can't wait!